Ariel (1988) Aki Kaurismaki movie
Rating: 6/10
Plot: Taisto’s having a bad day. The coal mine where he’s worked has shut down and his father decides he’s had enough and takes his life in a restaurant bathroom. But at least he gets a Cadillac out of the deal! He withdraws his savings and heads to a place that isn’t the place he is at in order to start over. He has trouble with the law, thugs, and finding employment. He also meets and falls for a divorced mother.
Watched this one right after Shadows in Paradise even though it was very very late. But I couldn’t think of a reason to wake up the next morning at a reasonable time, and the first Aki Kaurismaki movie put me in the mood to watch another one. So I said, “Hell yeah, mo-fo!” and popped this son of a bitch into the player. It’s actually may be the best of the three movies that make up this “trilogy” about lonely working people finding love.
It’s probably the strangest with some really bizarre developments that really get no reactions from the characters. Father committing suicide? No acknowledgement. Sentenced to jail time? No reaction. These kind of odd character details combined with Kaurismaki’s style (a camera that rarely moves, little dialogue) make this both otherworldly and familiar at the same time. I hate to mention Jarmusch again, but like his films, this guy’s stuff just pulls you into this quietly offbeat world that you just can’t help being entertained by. Maybe I didn’t laugh at the deadpan humor in the cracks of these desperate characters’ story, but I smiled more than I generally do at three in the morning. Gimme more, mo-fo!
